CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS 319 



I opened my hand, showed and explained the creature, 

 and asked : ' Now do you still believe in your Afrite? ' 

 But I withdrew, crestfallen, when I was answered with 

 all seriousness : ' Effendi, the Afrite was actually there, 

 but it changed itself into an insect, and if you had 

 tried to kill it you would not have been sitting here 

 with us in the tent.' 



The following story illustrates how it was with the 

 ghost of the city of Menas (Afrite Bumna) before our 

 arrival and before the discovery of the sanctuaries. 

 A bedouin sheikh named Schuchan had pitched his 

 tent near the holy city. He and his sons avoided 

 the sea of stones under which the holy city of 

 the desert lay buried as far as possible. But 

 during the winter months fine herbage grew on the 

 numerous mounds of ruins, which Schuchan 's camels 

 eagerly sought as food. It thus chanced that one 

 evening the bedouin unthinkingly took the shorter road 

 through the stones in order to look after his herds. 

 Suddenly, a few steps in front of him, he saw a bearded 

 man with a pale face, who looked out 'motionless from 

 among the fallen blocks of stone. The son of the 

 desert managed to preserve his coolness when for the 

 first time he saw the apparition so often talked of 

 round the evening fire. He took up a stone with a 

 threatening gesture, and called to his sons, who were 

 looking after the camels near by. But before the help 

 arrived he began to hurl big blocks of stone at the 

 ' devil of Bumna.' And when the young men came up 

 and assisted with all their might, the ghost vanished, 

 and was seen neither the next morning nor ever again 

 at least, until the day when Schuchan showed the 

 memorable place to the Frankfort excavators, and with 



